Event Types and Roles

The table below identifies some of the main event-types and
event-subtypes of interest. The default in both instances is ‘Unknown’. The
table also indicates typical associations of person-roles with event-type.

The predefined event-types are ones for which direct
evidence is likely to be available. STEMMA deliberately makes it easy to define
new event-types and subtypes, partly so that custom entities can be defined for
describing detailed hierarchical events. The Persons associated with an Event are
ones mentioned in a supporting source and that usually means they were present
but not always. The Status Property can be used for deceased/implied/absent/ persons
(e.g. a deceased parent on a marriage certificate, a person mentioned — implied
— but not present, or a crossed-out — absent — person in a
census household).

The values for event-subtype are subordinate to an event-type.
In software terms, the event-subtype may be represented as a child of the
event-type, e.g. Union.Marriage. The reason this was not carried through to the
person-role (e.g. Union.Marriage.Bride) was due to the number of combinations
and the undue rigidity.

A description of how custom event-types and roles are
accommodated may be found at ExtendedVocabularies.
Note that Unions involving more than two people, or people of the same sex, can
be determined by looking at the Roles involved. They are not given a specific
event-type.

Roles and Relationships are both normalised items of
information about a subject reference, but a Role is something relative to the
Event itself, whereas a Relationship is something relevant between two subject
references, such as between two persons. A more readable work on Roles and
Relationships can be found at Role of
the Role.

Q: Do we need a recognised event-type for a gender
reassignment procedure? The <Sex> element describes the “birth sex”
(however indeterminate) but we still need to be able to record such a
procedure. See No
Sex Please, We’re Genealogists!.

Q: Should we handle change of slave ownership under the
event-type ‘Responsibility’?